Another Surprise

My cousin Carly got married this past weekend, so Serena and I hitched a ride with Mom & Jess to Illinois to be at the wedding. Originally, we were not going to be able to go, but plans changed on Wednesday to make it all possible. Julie was flying in to Cedar Rapids on Friday night, so Mom & Jess were going to pick her up on their way to the wedding. We decided not to tell Julie that Serena & I were coming too. I covered Serena's car seat up with Jessica's coat and then I huddled down on the floor with a pillow in front of me so Julie wouldn't see us when she got into the van. After she was in, I peeked around the pillow and looked up at her and said, "Shhh..." And of course she jumped! Heehee, it was really funny to scare her! :D

We all stayed at Grandma's house (Jason, Julia, and Kaden were already there when we arrived). The wedding was on Saturday at 1. Around 12:30, Serena and I were all ready to go and just waiting for Mom and the girls to head out the door when the phone rang! It was Ashlee, Carly's little sister. She said that Carly's musicians had apparently taken a wrong turn on their way over from Chicago and were still 100 miles away, and could I play something? Amazingly, I had just happened to bring a bunch of my wedding music to Grandma's house. I usually bring music to Grandma's house to play on her piano, so when I was packing I had just grabbed my music bag to bring along. The last time I had taken it anywhere was to Andria's wedding, so it still had all her wedding music inside since I had not touched that music since her wedding! It seemed so random that I just 'happened' to have some wedding music along, but it worked out great that I could play for the whole ceremony. I'll admit I was a little nervous because I had never been to a Catholic wedding, let alone that I had not touched the music for 6 months!! I was really happy I was able to help out, though! Mom took care of Serena during the whole ceremony (which took about an hour and a half!), and thankfully Serena was really good for her! It was neat for me to be able to be a part of such a special event!

After the wedding, we had about 3 hours to kill before the reception, so we spent them over at Tiffany and Tim's house (more cousins!).

Kaden and Wrigley (Tim & Tiff's dog) watching the guys throw a football outside

Serena all fancied up in pink

The reception was beautiful and a wonderful time spent with family that we do not get to see very often!

My cousins Courtney, Carly, and Ashlee

Tim & Tiffany, our gracious hosts for the afternoon (the last time we were all together was for their wedding last summer)

I was playing Kaden's 'drum' with him, haha

Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jill, parents of the bride

Uncle Tim & Aunt Carla

Mom holding sleepy Serena during the reception

All the Gonigam side (this is my Mom's family)

A bunch of us cousins